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Sweden said it has unique skills to strengthen NATO alliance.
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The Minister of Defense has selected his submarines for Business Insider.
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They are quiet, small and can stay down for a long time, ideal for the Baltic Sea.
The Minister of Defense of Sweden told Business Insider that his country, the latest NATO fellow fellow, has “unique opportunities to strengthen the alliance.”
Pål Jonson emphasized the “sub-arctic capabilities” of Sweden and chose the Swedish submarines that operated in the Baltic Sea.
Sweden arrived at NATO in March 2024 and left for decades of neutrality in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The army is largely built with a threat to Russia in mind, and it is now one of the many European countries that warns that Russia could attack elsewhere on the continent.
The Navy of Sweden has three advanced Gotland-class diesel-electric submarines and a fourth older one who has to be retired when it is expected two new models from 2027.
Although they are not nuclear driven like American submarines, these submarines are quite capable. They have proven themselves against Western Marines in exercises.
Professor Basil Germond, a maritime security expert at British Lancaster University, told Bi that in the case of war, with Sweden now part of the Alliance, “NATO will be in a much better position in the Baltic Sea because of the concentration of power around the sea and their ability to close the sea for Russian activities.”
Powerful submarines
The submarines of Sweden are small, quiet and can stay under water for long pieces. The possibilities of the boats allowed an American aircraft carrier, assets that normally defended well, are “defeated” in a military exercise.
Sweden's HSMS Gotland “Sank” USS Ronald Reagan in a Wargame from 2005 that placed a Carrier task force against the Swedish boat in an anti-submarine warfare.
Sweden operates conventional submarines of Gotland-Class, who described Steven Horrell, a former American naval inlay officer and now a naval war expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis, to BI as “quieter than even an American nuclear class submarine.”
Bryan Clark, a former expert in the field of submarine and navy operations at the Hudson Institute, described the submarines of Sweden as 'very quiet'.
“That means they can work unnoticed,” he said. “They can patrol areas such as the Baltic Sea, without the opponent forces knowing they are there.”
Clark called the submarines a “big assets” for NATO.
Many NATO bondmen around the Baltic Sea have much less maritime power. The submarine fleet commander Fredrik Linden of Sweden told Reuters in 2023 that the Navy of Sweden has 'regional expertise, who fulfills a critical gap, expertise that NATO does not have'.
Jonson said that Sweden “has unique opportunities to work in the Baltic Sea under the surface, on the surface and in the air.” He added that the waterway is 'a fairly unique operational environment'.
“The number of ships at any time is around 4,500,” the minister said about the strategic waters of the Baltic Sea. “That has increased considerably in recent decades and after the entire invasion broke out.”
A strategic sea
Sweden knows the Baltic Sea well. Jonson said that operating there is “something we have been doing for hundreds of years, and we would like to think we know the Baltic Sea from the inside.”
The Waterweg is located in North Europe and is surrounded by Russia and NATO bondmen Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and is strategically important for both NATO and the Russians.
It is an important trade and telecommunications route. Jonson, the Minister of Defense of Sweden, described the sea as 'an important communication strip'.
The Russian War, which Moscow reportedly started with the intention of limiting the NATO expansion, is the Baltic see what some alliant members have called a “NATO sea” with Finland and Sweden who connect as allies.
In the Ukrainian war, Russia used its warships and subs to launch rockets in cities and critical infrastructure. However, Ukraine has been able to damage many of the Russian ships with the help of the navy drones, causing the Russian black sea fleet to drive away from the headquarters on the Crimea.
St. Petersburg has made this more important as one of the few Russian ports that will not become inaccessible in the winter. If Russia wanted to threaten Europe, the Baltic Sea could become a strategically important battlefield.
For NATO it is crucial to maintain a greater maritime deterrence in the Baltic Sea.
Made for this threat
The submarines of Gotland Class have been around for a while, but they have been repeatedly updated to retain their top combinations.
The Swedish boats have a unique air-independent propulsion system powered by Stirling cycle external combustion engines, an X-Roer for maneuverability and four heavyweight torpedo tubes and two lightweight torpedo tubes. They are secret assets that can fight surface vessels and subs, as well as lay mines.
Horrell called them perfect for a sea with “smaller coves, small islands, small shallow waters.”
“If you throw home waters where someone has been working as an individual, individual officers, individual crews, crews as a team for years and years, you know, that makes a huge difference and brings many capacities,” he added.
Clark said that Sweden tends to work mainly in that Baltic Sea, the North Sea region, which is many relatively shallow water and a lot of coastline, many small coves and fjords. “
He said that Sweden usually focuses on “submarines and coastal warfare”, while Finland focuses more on sea exploration, with assets such as mining layers. “Between the two of them,” he said, “they could pretty well pin the Russian troops in Russian waters.”
Western officials have expressed their concern about Baltic sea safety in response to severed undersea cables.
Sweden goes on his actions and buys more surface vessels. That is also other allies. Denmark still buys dozens of ships in the midst of rising threats in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic.
Sweden and many of his neighbors warn that Russia could attack elsewhere in Europe, beyond Ukraine.
It has increased its defense expenditure and wants allies to do the same. Jonson said: “We have doubled our own defense investments in five years, and we are now 2.4% of GDP and we have a process that goes even further.”
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